[Footnote 161: The tract by Ivano (? Hyvanus), printed in vol. XXXIII. of Muratori, is diffuse and unsatisfactory, although he was an official of Volterra. I prefer the contemporary narratives of Porcellio and Vespasiano, Vat. Urb. MSS. Nos. 373 and 941. I have also consulted the epics of Sanzi and Naldo, Rinuccini's _Ricordi_, and a number of unimportant narratives and documents in the public library of Volterra, as well as the standard Italian histories.] [Footnote 162: There is in the Albani library at Rome a MS. by Giunta, where I found it stated that the Count asked and obtained this Bible of the magistracy, in exchange for the standards taken at Volterra.] His return from this rapid campaign to the beautiful Queen of Arnoa was a triumphal pageant. Its enthusiastic population met him beyond the gates, and escorted him with acclamations through streets draped with tapestries and rich brocades. In the piazza he was welcomed by the magistrates with a complimentary oration, and at a public banquet received as appropriate gifts the colours of the republic, a handsome charger richly caparisoned, together with a silver helmet, studded with jewels, and chased in gold by the marvellous chisel of Pollaiuolo.[163] Besides a substantial guerdon of lands, houses, brocade stuffs, and vases brimming with bullion, conferred on Federigo, valuable commercial exemptions were decreed in favour of the subjects of Urbino, and three days of uninterrupted festivity scarcely abated the popular rejoicings. Not less valuable in his eyes was the compliment which his good service earned from a private citizen. Poggio Bracciolino being on the outlook for a patron for his _History of the Florentines_, deemed it could be most appropriately inscribed to one who had just crowned their arms with signal success. [Footnote 163: Sanzi tells us its crest was Hercules trampling on a griffin (the device of Volterra), which lay wounded, plucked of its pinions, and chained by the neck. How often has it happened that art, capable of ennobling the meanest materials, is lost to the world from being employed on those whose intrinsic value is a temptation to ignorant cupidity. This helmet might now bring tenfold the price for which it probably was broken up!] The star of Federigo's fortunes now reached its zenith. The scattered mountain fiefs held by his ancestors had been concentrated by his first marriage, and extended by his policy or prowess.[164] His second nuptials, long crowned by singular domestic felicity, had at length given him an heir. He had founded palaces and churches worthy the admiration of coming generations. He had wielded the batons, and he enjoyed the affectionate respect, of the five great Peninsular powers. He saw the wars, which had yielded him laurels and enriched his state, subside into a peace still more beneficial to his subjects and conducive to his tastes. But, as old Sanzi moralises,